Today in Microbiology Lab we reviewed how to maximize the potential of a light microscope for viewing specimens and looked at bacteria, yeast, and zooplankton. Here are some pictures I tried to get at the few we looked at:
The largest picture is Staphylococcus aureus, a Gram-positive bacteria and a member of Firmicutes. Top right is zooplankton viewed with a dark field microscope, which was pretty cool as I’ve never seen one before and the dark background really makes the details pop. Middle left is another view of S. aureus at I believe it was 100x magnification. It looked totally different from the picture on the left viewed at a closer magnification. The bottom left is Escherichia coli, which was so small!
We learned how to use a stage micrometer which despite the name is actually found on a blank slide, go figure. And we used this after we calibrated the ocular micrometer to measure the width and length of these things. The E. coli was so tiny I could barely guess an estimate. We decided on less than .5 μm width and about 1 μm length. I have yet to look these up to see how accurate these are, however.
Still, a pretty cool lab though and I learned how I can utilize my personal microscope better. : ) Thanks, Dr. Brooks!
Joshua Wilson 